July 2009

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True Measure of a Woman – Beck’s Cafe archive re-perk

July 29, 2009 in Gender by Rebecca | No comments

July 2007 saw a long discussion among many of us in our Boston community (both trans-gender and cis-gender women) about the true measure of a woman.  I found the thoughts from some of the contributors in the article as interesting now as they were two years ago.  Sadly, Earlbecke has taken down her blog, Definitions, from which an exerpt in this post is written.    Some teasers from our article, “True Measure of a Woman” to wet your whistle:

  • The most valuable pieces of my post that are worth sharing on “the true measure of a woman” comes not from my keyboard but from the keyboards of two other genetic women. I think their answers may challenge you.
  • The reality is that there is no universal, essential experience of womanhood. The mainstream American feminist movement has often and rightly been criticized for ignoring the experience of women of color, queer women, poor women.
  • What is this experience transwomen can never have or understand which makes them not “real” women in the social sense?
  • If you really want to know the true measure of a woman is, it’s being a friend and looking out for each other.

There’s lots more so have a read and enjoy!   You may visit the article here:  “True Measure of a Woman”

(Amazingly cute photo courtesy of Hoyasmeg’s Photo’s ; Earlbecke is writing anew at Melted Dreams)

Walter Bockting, WPATH President, shares his thoughts on transgender people and HIV

July 27, 2009 in Gender by Rebecca | No comments

Walter Bockting is the President Elect of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health or WPATH for short. WPATH formerly known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc. (HBIGDA) is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity disorders.  So when I saw an interview for Dr. Bockting I was all ears.  He has some interesting points to share both on transgender people and on HIV within our community:

  • How large does WPATH estimate the transgender community is? “The entire transgender population is likely to be much larger, perhaps 1 in every 2,000″
  • Is the rate of HIV among transgender persons high? “It may be closer to between 2-12% that are HIV-positive, but again that is why the CDC recently agreed to track transgender people better because we’ve got to get a better picture of the prevalence of HIV in this population. “
  • Is the rate of alcohol and drug abuse higher in the transgender community than in the general population?
    Yes, it is higher among certain subgroups of the transgender population. For some, this is to cope with rejection and anticipated rejection. Others may use substances to overcome inhibitions related to shame and fear about being transgender.

It’s an interesting interview and an important read since WPATH is so influential in the lives of so many transgender persons, whether they know it or not.   You may read the full interview at the web site, “The Body” at this link to the interview here.

Wordpress for Blackberry

July 7, 2009 in Coffee Chat, Frugal Tech by Rebecca | No comments

Well while sitting here having my late morning coffee I was reading Crackberry.com (and came across the announcement that Wordpress for Blackberry is live for Beta. How cool is this!

I’ve got it downloaded to my Curve (that’s my phone not my figure!) and gosh this is really neat. And what is the magic word this Frugal Tech girl likes with her apps? Free :) that’s right Automattic, the code is poetry folks behind Wordpress, are providing this for free :) Thank You Automattic!

You can try your own copy of Wordpress for Blackberry beta at Wordpress.org here:

7-8-09 Update
Well, I’m having that early morning coffee and posting from my hated “loved” Acer /Vista laptop to update this post.  It seems the Blackberry Wordpress app has a little bug (or a little user issue) in terms of HTML links showing.   So, here they are.  For the Blackberrry Wordpress client, you can find it at their site here.   For Crackberry, you can surf on over to their site here.

Update 2: Gender Therapists – how do you choose?

July 6, 2009 in Gender by Rebecca | No comments

We’ve updated our post, “Gender Therapists – How do you choose?”  today.  We’ve linked in with an excellent set of resources for trans-youth and added a second resource for gender therapists in Massachusetts.

You can reach the updated article at Beck’s Cafe at this link: “Gender Therapist – How do you choose?“   Happy Reading :)

Is Jesus asleep or are you?

July 5, 2009 in Leap of Faith by Rebecca | No comments

Is Jesus asleep in the boat or are you and I asleep?  I received this sermon from the Christian Magazine, Whosoever,  titled, “Jesus, Wake Up“.  And loved it.  The text that forms the basis of the sermon is from Matthew 8:23-27 (NET Bible)

As he [Jesus] got into the boat, his disciples followed him.  And a great storm developed on the sea so that the waves began to swamp the boat. But he was asleep. So they came and woke him up saying, “Lord, save us! We are about to die!” But he said to them, “Why are you cowardly, you people of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was dead calm. And the men were amazed and said, “What sort of person is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him!”

Some backstory and context for you:

  • The Disciples were professional fisherman by trade.  They knew the Sea of Galilee well
  • Just prior to this event, the Disciples had seen Jesus: Cleanse a leper (Mt 8:1), Heal a Roman Army Centurion servant (Mt 8:5), and heal Peter’s Mother-in-Law (Mt 8:14).  So they had seen what kind of power their simple friend and teacher, Jesus, had.
  • Since the boat held all the disciples, it was probably very large
  • The disciples followed Jesus even though they did not know all about him yet.

So what about the sermon?  Well it’s great, and you should click over to take a read with your afternoon latte, but here are some teasers:

  • We can’t blame ourselves, however, if we often forget who holds the greatest power in our universe. As we survey our world, we see many opulent displays of human power – nuclear weapons, terrorist bombs, loaded guns, and armored vehicles. These are certainly powerful enough to bring destruction to our world and perhaps annihilate our world all together. Yet, not one of them is as powerful as the God we serve.
  • We are like the disciples who, panic-stricken, accused Jesus of not caring about their fate.
  • Thomas Merton tells us that “to keep ourselves spiritually alive we must constantly renew our faith. We are like pilots of fogbound steamers, peering into the gloom in front of us, listening to the sounds of other ships, and we can only reach our harbor if we keep alert.
  • When things are going well in life it’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security, believing nothing bad can befall us again. We have fallen asleep at the wheel and we awake in a panic when the storms of life begin to blow. We wonder where God is and if we have been abandoned to the waves that threaten to capsize our boat. We accuse God of being asleep – leaving us to be swallowed up by our problems.

Is Jesus asleep or are each of us?  Read the sermon at Whosever to find the answer.  Click to the Whosoever site at this link here: “Jesus, Wake Up!”

(Photo courtesy of Shayan’s Photos)

Beck’s Cafe on Twitter

July 3, 2009 in Coffee Chat by Rebecca | No comments

Well social media here we come!  Beck’s Cafe is now tweeting on twitter.   You can follow us there if you like, our twitter address is http://twitter.com/BecksCafe and we’ll be feeding Beck’s Cafe’s RSS feed to our Twitter site as well so you can stay up to date for what’s percolating here.  Of course, you could skip Twitter and just RSS us too by clicking on our RSS feed for Beck’s Cafe  http://beckscafe.com/feed/

Whatever works best for you!